


The Right of Conscription

by bramblefae



Series: Dailisa Cousland [10]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-11
Updated: 2014-06-11
Packaged: 2018-02-04 07:54:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1771492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bramblefae/pseuds/bramblefae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dailisa and Nate regale a new warden with stories, and put an evil old ghost to rest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Right of Conscription

**Author's Note:**

> Tamis is actually my warden recruit in the Dragon Age tabletop hubby and I are situating. I put her through the Joining, though, for this and maybe we'll see her again, later. :) (Timeline wise, this is after Anders has gone to Kirkwall.)

     "So, basically, you can go anywhere in Ferelden and say to anyone at all, 'Hey. You're gonna be a Grey Warden now. Come on.' and there's nothing anyone can do about it? Not even King Alistair?" Tamis asked Dailisa as they both sat at the table in the dining hall a couple of weeks after Tamis' Joining. Nathaniel, sitting at the table making arrows, snorted.

     Dailisa shot him a repressive look before she answered the young woman. "In theory, Tamis, yes, I can. However, we were banned from Ferelden for a long time. It was not until King Maric that we were allowed back in, so conscription is not something I would do just willy-nilly."

     The blond woman looked fascinated, her brown eyes wide as she listened. "Have you ever used it, Commander?" Nathaniel snorted again and Dailisa avoided looking at him to keep a straight face.

     "I've used the Right of Conscription exactly twice, Tamis."

     "Twice?" Nathaniel wasn't even pretending not to listen now. Dailisa shot him a surprised look.

     "You didn't know? Huh." She turned back to Tamis and said, "When I first got to the Vigil-I mean, literally, when I arrived- the place was being overrun by darkspawn. It was a pretty terrible mess, but there was a mage here. He'd run away from the Circle, apparently, and his templar captors had stopped here on their way back to Kinloch Hold. Unluckily for them." She gave Nathaniel a soft look, seeing the shadowed expression he always wore when thinking about Anders.

     "Anyway, the King arrived, in true Alistair fashion, the very moment everything was taken care of." Tamis looked shocked at Dailisa's description of the King. Dailisa grinned then went on. "In his retinue was a templar who wanted to take the mage back to the tower, but he had risked his own neck to help me get survivors to safety, he'd fought the darkspawn with no signs of hesitation or fear, and to be honest, he was a damn good mage. So, I conscripted him." Dailisa shrugged.

     "I didn't know you conscripted Anders. He always just made it sound like it was his idea." Nathaniel said, wonder in his voice.  Dailisa snorted.

     "Of course he did."

     Tamis asked, hesitantly. "Did he...did the Joining..." Dailisa and Nathaniel shared a horrified look. Both of the other recruits who took the Joining with Tamis died.

     "He survived, Tamis. He is...elsewhere now." Dailisa said, patting the other woman's hand. Tamis   looked oddly relieved.

     "You said, though, Commander, that you'd conscripted twice. Who was the second one?" she asked.

     Dailisa nodded her head toward Nathaniel. "Messere Howe over there, actually."

     Tamis goggled at Nathaniel who was suddenly very interested in his arrow parts. "You didn't want to be a Warden?"

     "No." He said, shortly, making Dailisa laugh. He wrinkled his nose, then smiled ruefully.

     "In fact, Tamis, when I met him, he was locked in a cell in the dungeon." Dailisa laughed again, both at Tamis nearly gasping out loud and at Nathaniel's almost audible eye roll.

     "What in the Maker's name did you do, Ser Howe?!"

     Nathaniel grumbled. "My name is Nathaniel. I am no "Ser". And ask our beloved Commander over there. She seems to be enjoying the telling."

     Dailisa smiled but then her smile faltered as she thought about it. "Well, he shouldn't have been there, truth be told. Except, maybe, for beating up the four Wardens who apprehended him. And that, young lady, is why you'll be training with him."

     Dailisa seemed to be done talking, so Nathaniel gave her a guarded look as he took up the tale. "I was caught breaking into the Vigil. I was going to take some things..."

     "That belonged to you!" Dailisa interjected, looking down at the table.

     "..And I thought while I was here," Nate went on as if Dailisa hadn't spoken. He was looking down at the arrow fletching in his hand. "I thought that I would give a go at killing the new Commander."

     Dailisa gave Nathaniel a pained look, while Tamis blinked at both of them, unsure whether to say anything at all.

     "Nathaniel, we don't have to rehash this." She sighed, causing Nathaniel to meet her gaze. He kept his eyes locked on Dailisa while he talked.

     "A wicked and probably broken man took everything away from my family and I blamed her because I couldn't bear to blame him."

**::**::**

     When Dailisa walked into her room that evening, she wasn't surprised to see Nathaniel standing at the big window, looking out over the darkened Keep. She stopped just inside the room and said, "I wasn't thinking. I'm sorry I brought all that up." She shut the door and walked to her bed, pulling off her boots. She sat cross legged on the bed, as Nathaniel moved to sit in a chair, facing her.

     "Honestly, I didn't think about it either. I just..." He inhaled through his nose, then exhaled explosively.  "It was the first time I'd ever actively wanted to murder a person." He looked at Dailisa, who was watching him with a carefully blank face, then he looked down at his feet. "I did, too. You opened up that cell door and I was judging distances, trying to decide if I could kill you before the guard got to me." He grimaced.

     "Of course, it didn't occur to me, even with you in full combat armor, that you might fight back. And then you asked what I'd do if you let me leave." Nathaniel looked up to Dailisa. "That...never crossed my mind. And then you conscripted me." He nearly smiled. "I was so pissed off."

     Dailisa smiled in return. "You said at the time that you didn't know whether it was a punishment or a vote of confidence...Well." She grew serious, and looked away from Nathaniel. "You're a Warden now. Not much of a favor, really, is it?" She fidgeted with her fingernails and avoided looking at Nathaniel as she spoke. "I conscripted you because your father took everything, everything, away from me, and the Wardens were the only option I was left with." She cleared her throat and sighed before going on. "Since he'd take everything away from you, too, whether you understood that or not, it was in my power to leave the Wardens as your only option as well."

     Dailisa spoke in a small voice, still looking at her hands, "I conscripted you, Nathaniel, so we'd be even."

     After several seconds of silence, Dailisa risked a glance at Nathaniel. He was staring at his hands, poleaxed. After several more seconds he says, to his hands, "I...I need to think." And he stood and stalked out. As he reached the door, he said, without turning around, "I'll be back."

     Dailisa sat on the bed, lost in her own thoughts, until the hour candle sputtered and went out. She shook her head, stripped down and crawled under the covers. Sleep was a long time in coming, but eventually it took her.

**_::**::_ **

     Dailisa woke sometime in the dark to Nathaniel's naked and chilly form sliding into the bed and pressing himself against her. She obligingly wrapped herself around him and lifted her face up toward his before she woke enough to be surprised. He shushed her with a kiss.

     "I told you I'd be back."

     "Yes," she whispered, "you didn't tell me you'd be frozen." and kissed his collarbone.  He kissed her forehead, smiling as he brought the covers up around them.

     Dailisa, fully awake, said softly, into Nathaniel's chest, "Do you forgive me?"

     He took her face into his hands and raised her to look at him in the light of the moon through the big window. "There is nothing to forgive, Dailisa. Nothing." Nathaniel stroked her cheek with his thumb before going on. "Both of us are where we are because my father lost sight of everything but greed and evil." He enfolded Dailisa in his embrace, talking over the top of her head as he stroked her back.

     "I think you are right, though. We are even now." He kissed the top of her head, holding her to keep her from pulling away. "I only mean that your life is different, now, than it would have been, because I love you."

     "That's not true though." She said, raising a hand to put on Nathaniel's mouth to hush him. "My life is different now, not because you love me, but because I love you."

     He smiled slowly against her hand, raised his own hand to take it, kiss it, and hold it between the two of them.

     "Then maybe that will be enough to lay the ghost of Renden Howe to rest. For both of us."


End file.
